Revenge's Emily VanCamp: "I Hope People Will Root for Her"

She lies. She cheats. She poisons. Emily Thorne (Emily VanCamp) intends to take down those who ruined her father's life. But will viewers cheer on this vengeful vamp?

"These people have done horrible, horrible things and I think people will probably enjoy watching mean, rich people who've done horrible things go down," VanCamp tells TVGuide.com of her new series Revenge. "I hope people will root for her."

Premiering Wednesday at 10/9c on ABC, Revenge follows Emily 17 years after her father was framed for a crime. She never saw him again, and is now posing as a rich and mysterious young woman to put her payback plan in motion in the Hamptons — where it all began. Her ultimate target: Victoria (Madeleine Stowe) — the Hamptons' unofficial leader. "That's who she's really got her eye on and that's going to take a much longer time," VanCamp says.

VanCamp admits she was concerned about whether viewers could empathize with such a ruthless woman. "You never know how people are going to take the character, but I think ultimately it's justified. She's lost everything — she has nothing to lose," she says. "The poor girl — she's been through a lot."

Her character is a far cry from VanCamp's previous notable roles: Amy Abbott, the girl next door with the comatose boyfriend on Everwood, and Rebecca Harper, the lonely outsider among the Walker clan on Brothers & Sisters. "I love strong women characters, and she's certainly that," she says. "I was really looking for a challenge at the time in my life that I read the script and just really connected with it."

But VanCamp also stresses that viewers will get to see the softer side of Emily (real name: Amanda Clarke) through flashbacks — a device the show uses to show her transformation from a child stripped of her father to a jaded 20-something obsessed with settling the score. "We'll kind of see the more vulnerable side of her — who she was as Amanda Clark. We're going to see a lot of where she's been and how she's trained for this huge plan of hers," she says.